Tuesday, 30 October 2012

To Put it simply here's how Arsenal have gotten on in the last ten years in the annual nominations for what is generally considered the best players in Europe. This year there is an ex-player nominated, reflecting his performance for us in the first half of the year, but he's a player that we were unable to keep.

Friday, 26 October 2012

In looking at the current state of play at The
Arsenal it’s easy to feel anger, frustration, disappointment and sadness. I
don't expect anything from money men, be they employed by Football clubs, local
Authorities or other businesses, therefore the pronouncements of Hill-Wood,
Kronke and Gazidis do not surprise me. That they are concerned about Pounds
Shillings and pence is the reality of the modern football landscape.

Our Manager, however, is by definition
responsible to the club and the supporters for delivering footballing success
alongside the other aspects of his job description. A lot has been said about
Arsene Wenger. Those that criticise him as the manager of our club are vilified
(yes, If that criticism is of a personal nature then it should be rightly
reprimanded) by those that feel he is beyond reproach.

And there's the rub; Arsene Wenger is beyond
criticism from those that pay him to do his job. Just as every Arsenal
supporter has an opinion, good, bad or indifferent, to gag points of view and
abuse dissenters to any perceived 'right' way of thinking serves no
purpose.

I have issues with Arsene Wenger as our manager
and I believe that they have merit.

"I'll not budge an inch"

I think
it’s fair to say that Arsene Wenger is not a tactician, he is more a
believer in imposing a style of play than responding tactically. This
policy has faults as it leaves little scope for reactive decision making.

In terms of
tactical defensive displays that reaped dividends I can only recall two; Arsenal
0-0 Real Madrid ECL 1/4 Final

Arsenal 0-0 Manchester United FA Cup final.

The
rigidity of the 70thminute
substitution is hard to comprehend, these substitutions are often illogical and
seem only based on fitness. Rarely do we see a tactical substitution made then,
or at any other point in a game

"Ambition should be made of sterner stuff"

The manager
has made the correlation between qualifying for the Champions League and
attracting top class players. This does not stand up to scrutiny as we have
seen Liverpool and Newcastle bring in one or two very good players despite not
competing in the ECL. The better players who have joined Arsenal in the last
half decade have generally gone elsewhere to win trophies.

A team that
is always ‘there or there abouts’ when it comes to trophies and picks the odd
one up now and again will attract players.

"The
game is up"

Allowing
Ashley Cole to go to Chelsea was a defining moment in our better players
leaving the club through choice, it also showed a metaphorical defeatism to the
new Oligarchs on the block from Stamford Bridge. In Cole’s departure and his
subsequent success (and that of the club he went to) was sown the seeds of a
new regime in the league and one that the club almost took too lightly.

Yes it’s
hard to compete with bottomless pockets but by creating an environment where
success is rewarded a club can compete out there on the pitch. Our club
financially rewards mediocrity at player and manager level, and the wages paid
to mediocre players at Arsenal make it hard for better players to swallow.

Year on
year our Captains have departed, albeit for differing reasons, which sends out
a message. No other comparable club has had such a turnover in Captains; that’s
a fact.

"That
it should come to this!"

In 16 years
I think it’s true to say that Arsene Wenger has bought 1 top quality keeper in
Jens Lehman. When Almunia was promoted and in effect took over as the clubs
number 1 we had possibly the worst keeper amongst the clubs we were competing with.
I also believe that for a period no comparable club in the Premier league had a
worse set of keepers as we did in Almunia, Fabianski and Mannone. Failure to
invest in an experienced Goalie in the last 5 years to join the keepers’ mini
squad is hard to understand.

"Delays
have dangerous ends"

It is rare
to have former players criticise Arsene Wenger, and this is most likely down to
the fact that Arsene is a decent human being (I believe this, but it does not
make him immune from criticism in his role as manager of Arsenal). What is of
concern is the way in which we keep seeing poor players on extended and
lucrative contracts, making them virtually unsellable and good players being
allowed to run their contracts down; this seems to me as making bad business
sense, but what do I know? I don’t have a business or economics degree.

"A poor
player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no
more"

This is
something of a myth. In 16 years just how many players have we seen come
through the ranks and become regular quality first team players? By the law of
averages we should expect to have seen maybe 10-12? Too many? Okay 7-8 players
achieve this. But we haven’t.

"When
sorrows come, they come not single spies ,but in battalions"

Aside from
disgraceful leg-breakers inflicted on Diaby, Eduardo and Ramsey we have seen
unprecedented injuries to our squad. The sheer volume is mind boggling. Sheer
bad luck or something else? The Arsenal have top notch facilities at Colney yet
the treatment table is permanently fully booked. Could there be a problem on
the training pitch where it is a well known fact that little contact training
takes place? Who can say but our injury record is appalling and shows no signs
of abating

"An
honest tale speeds best, being plainly told"

The manager
seems to have a policy, implied or implicit, of sticking with players too long
and allowing other players that were happy to stay to go too early. Examples of
‘too long’ being Denilson, Almunia and Eboue among many others. Examples of
‘too early’ being Gilberto, Pires, Lehman and Edu (the list is much longer). Of
course he is paid, and paid well, to make these kinds of decisions and will get
some of them wrong, he’s only human, but those decisions have been proved
wrong time after time.

"We
have seen better days"

The golden
period for Wenger’s Arsenal began with a League and Cup double in 1998,
following his arrival in 1996, with a team that had an inherited back 5 and an
inherited Bergkamp, Wright and Parlour. We saw the addition of fabulous talent
in Henry, Vieira, Pires, Ljungberg and great squad players like Kanu, Wiltord
and Edu. These were the glory days of battling it out annually with the great
Manchester United side for supremacy; Halcyon days. We had more doubles and the
Invincibles we took the FA Cup in 2005 and reached the ECL final in 2006. Then
a move to the all singing-all dancing Emirates and that empty space on the
upper tier display. We are well into the second half of Arsene Wenger’s tenure
and the statistics, unlike opinions, are indisputable. The club are doing far
worse on the pitch than during the first half of Wenger’s reign

Even
allowing for the rise of the Oligarch, the arrival of oil money and other
external factors it has to be acknowledged that Arsenal Football Club are not
in a good place out there on the big green rectangle and in the trophy cabinet.

"This
is the short and the long of it"

If one
judges Arsene Wenger and is seen as being unfair for doing so it should be
recognised that he is only being judged by the standards that he himself set.
Which I think is fair enough

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Manchester United came back from the dead to win the
Champions League on a night of high drama at the Camp Nou. Liverpool came back
from the dead to win the Champions League on a night of high drama. In Istanbul
Chelsea came back from the dead to win the Champions League on a night of high
drama in Munich.

The Arsenal, after a dramatic opening reduced us to 10 men,
drew first blood in Paris but could not hold firm against Barca’s passing game.
Our moment of glory in the ultimate club competition did not materialise. Are
we one of those clubs who like Aston Villa had one shot and one shot only? How
near have we been to that pinnacle since then?

For me the Champions League and our failure to maintain a
realistic challenge is a bone of contention. Qualifying year on year is an
achievement, that has to be said but the merits of qualifying for a tournament
that we are nowhere near to winning can only be a matter of commerce.

I’m not envious of those English clubs that have reached the
summit, I am jealous; there is a distinction. I’m jealous that we didn’t
experience the drama and elation, I’m jealous of the feeling of triumph when
the chips were down.

There was an Arsenal who gave that feeling; in Copenhagen, at
Anfield, at Wembley at White Hart Lane and at Old Trafford, but that Arsenal seems
a distant memory. An Arsenal that could beat the odds in a Champions League
final seems like a myth now.

Watching another campaign creep out of the garage towards
the highway of qualification from the first group stage, I don’t feel that our
final destination will be Wembley, I feel we will break down yet again on
Broken Dream Avenue.

I hope not and I would love to be proved wrong at the home
of football.

Monday, 22 October 2012

What are the expectations at Arsenal? This is not a diatribe nor a matter of 'choosing sides' This is not about a sense of entitlement; no club is entitled to anything, it's about having expectations based on the resources available.

Every club looks at what it wants to achieve at the start of the season and reflects on how realistic that expectation is. For some it's staying in the Premier league and having a good cup run for others it's finishing in a European place and perhaps winning a cup, for others still its winning the Premier League or Champions League.

I wonder which category we fit into. Looking back in time I think it was clear, now I really don't know.

We haven't had a top class keeper for 5 years; I don't know why. We don't buy top quality players of the ready made variety, a Mata or an Aguerra for example, on a regular basis. We don't successfully develop young players, despite the myth this is actually the case. We sell our better players regularly. The boards ambition is a ECL place. The manager appears to be under no pressure.

We do not perform consistently as a club that wants to win the league. We are a cup team with no cups. But the money keeps rolling in therefore making everything alright for those running the club.

Players wages go up, ticket prices go up, the attendant costs of a match day experience go up, revenue for the club goes up but the expectation levels go down.

If we, as supporters, base our expectations on the past or the present we need to look at the circumstances of these times. The club is better off than it was the last time that Arsenal were contenders; 2004/05/06. But achievement levels are demonstratively lower. It's naive not to factor in the changes since then with Oligarchs and Oil money coming into the equation but even still, there is always going to be someone better off than you.

The Club we all support so loyally seems content to be a moribund entity making money but with no real means or desire to challenge for a place back at the top table.

Friday, 19 October 2012

A Premier league season ticket became a premium item some time ago. A corporate box the 'go to' destination for client shmoozing. The hype of the modern game allowed avarice to flourish, it allowed financial morality and loyalty to the lifeblood of the game (the supporter) to be ridden over roughshod.We have seen the price of everything associated with the Premier League product climb and climb; much like players wages. Those players' greedy agents push things ever upwards. Owners and board members are only interested in a bit of reflected glory and having their dividends bloated.The figures below are truly saddening as they exist because we, the supporters, have allowed it to happen; almost by osmosis. These figures are nothing short of scandalous as they are a clear indicator that Football is unconcerned about being a game for the masses.The Clubs and the people at them who set prices have a simple philosophy; "don't worry about the price hikes, those mugs will pay whatever we want. If they don't there are plenty more fish in the sea."In earlier posts I have spoken about a tipping point in terms of Premier League football; a point at which supporters can't be squeezed any longer, a point at which the game grabs ahold of itself before it becomes too obese to move. Unfortunately and depressingly I don't think that point is anywhere on the horizon.

Views, opinions and that...

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